'A booby trap,' said H. O., 'the first thing when they get up, and
an apple-pie bed at night.'

But Dora would not hear of it, and I own she was right.

'Suppose,' she said, 'we could get up a good play-- like we did
when we were Treasure Seekers.'

We said, well what? But she did not say.

'It ought to be a good long thing--to last all day,' Dicky said,
'and if they like they can play, and if they don't--'

'If they don't, I'll read to them,' Alice said.

But we all said 'No, you don't--if you begin that way you'll have
to go on.'

And Dicky added, 'I wasn't going to say that at all. I was going
to say if they didn't like it they could jolly well do the other
thing.'

We all agreed that we must think of something, but we none of us
could, and at last the council broke up in confusion because Mrs
Blake--she is the housekeeper--came up and turned off the gas.

But next morning when we were having breakfast, and the two
strangers were sitting there so pink and clean, Oswald suddenly
said--